The first masked villain

Remember just the other day when I posted about Arsene Lupen, one of my childhood heroes? OK, Sherlock Holmes (called Herlock Sholmes for copyright reasons in the Lupen books) was a greater hero - there is probably not a single book or story I have not read at least once in my life.

I could also remember there was another French one, but I forgot his name so I omitted him from my post. I could recall the smell and sight of the beautiful new hardcover translations, and how my mother and her friends looked down on them and would not believe me that the books were well-written, smart and exciting. But I could not recall the name of the villain that was the main character of the series. And now, after about 30 years that I never thought about or heard about him, I found it on a blog by sheer coincidence - his name is Fantomas! (via). The books were publised starting in 1911 and it may have been the first masked villain in literature.